It's all uphill from here (or is that downhill?). Eating like a pig (animal idioms).

1047. This week, we look at word pairs like "august/August" that change their meaning when capitalized and how you can make your meaning clear. Then, we look at how we got to the point where U.S. pres...

14 Jan 202515min

1046. Jennifer Lynn Barnes, author of the "Inheritance Games" books, discusses how writing from different points of view can help readers connect with characters in different ways. We also talked abou...

9 Jan 202523min

1045. A listener asked if the song "The Wizard and I" should actually be "The Wizard and Me," so we look at how you can tell. And then we look at interesting idioms about familiar places: "neck of the...

7 Jan 202514min

1044. Today, I'm talking about a strange disappearance that forensic linguist Natalie Schilling worked on that she calls "the case of the mystery dialect." This is the original bonus segment from our ...

2 Jan 202520min

1043. "Skibidi," "polarization," "brat," "demure," "enshittification," and more. You might get whiplash from the vacillating vibes of all the words the dictionaries chose this year. I joined John Kell...

30 Des 202444min

1042. Today, I have the bonus segment from my interview with Ben Yagoda back in September. Ben is the author of the book "Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English," and we talked about the...

26 Des 202414min

1041. Today, we talk about the word "home" and its meaning beyond just a structure, and then we talk about false friends — words in different languages that don't mean what you think they mean.The "ho...

23 Des 202414min

1040. The downsides of AI bother me a lot — job loss, energy use, and the content tsunami. But I also think it's critically important to understand what this technology can do and how it's likely to c...

19 Des 202422min